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Young hawk makes it back to the nest

By DANA HERRA
-dherra@shawmedia.com

July 1, 2013

Photo provided

Caption

A juvenile red-tailed hawk blown out of its nest was stuck on top of Cortland Town Hall for several days before making it back home. Baby birds are often blown out of their nests during storms. They can usually be successfully returned to the nest.

CORTLAND – It took almost a week, but a young red-tailed hawk blown out of its nest and across a street in the June 12 storm made it back home.

A family of hawks have a nest on top of the grain dryer on Somonauk Road in downtown Cortland, said Heather Black, assistant director of the Cortland Community Library, which is across the street from the grain dryer. A young hawk, apparently blown out of the nest, was found after the storm on the roof of Town Hall, next door to the library.

Christy Gerbitz, Oaken Acres Wildlife Center operations manager, said the hawk was not injured, although it was too young to fly back to the nest.

“He had just been fed when we saw him, so he was in good shape with mom and dad,” she said.

Black said the library’s young patrons were particularly interested in watching the hawk because they could get so close. In its attempts to fly back to its nest, it first flew from the roof to a nearby lamp post. After several days, it was back with its family on the grain dryer.

Gerbitz said the wildlife center gets a lot of calls about young birds after storms. Most of the time, those birds can be successfully returned to their nests. Anyone who finds orphaned or injured wildlife is encouraged to call Oaken Acres at 815-895-9666 before making a rescue attempt. More information can be found at www.oakenacres.org.

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